DANGERLION

The End.

KRANTZ — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 23:42:32 +0000

Took me a little longer than I would have liked, but today I finally typed FADE OUT. Danced around the ending for a bit but today it all spilled forth. Total length: 80 pages.

boom. :D

So the plan (now) is to print it out and place it somewhere far from sight for awhile. Eventually I'll get cracking on reworking everything that doesn't work. Which is a lot. I think I might attempt to write the 2nd draft longhand, something I've never done before...

Now the question is... what next? What do I write tomorrow? Think I'll go back to TalkTheTalk and work on some dialogue writing exercises for a bit. Was also thinking about inventing my own exercise where I try to write scenes and stories to specific music or playlists... attempt to capture the emotion and rhythm of the music. That could be pretty instructive, I'll give that a shot. As for the next major piece of work... do I rewrite this? TV pilot? Spec script? Play? Another feature? A game?

WHAT NOW DESTINY?!

A big TY to everyone who cheered me on or just read these posts. Could not have gotten here without you. 4 REALZIES. Let this blog be a testament to what you can do when you make your goal public and chug along at it, just a little each day. It takes a ton of work to get really good at something, but if you enjoy doing it, and you want to be the person who is really good at that thing... I believe you owe it to yourself to do that thing. Be the best version of yourself you can. Life is too short.

Happy New Year all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3hn6fFTxeo

FINAL PUSH!

KRANTZ — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:16:43 +0000

I'm on page 70 and moving into the last major Act (Act 4). Definitely hitting my stride now, and feeling a huge desire to push through all the way to the end. I'm expecting it to come in around 85-90 pages, a count that I'm pretty happy with (better 85 pages than 130, both for my sanity and because a lot will get thrown out for ensuing drafts). Think I will be done this weekend or early next week!

Can't wait to print this thing out and hold it in my hands. I'll post a picture. Will be a very satisfying day.

THREE BOOMS FOR FINAL PUSH

BOOM

60

KRANTZ — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:55:42 +0000

60 pages! Ahaha. EAT IT, RESISTANCE. EAT MY SHORTS. Had two pieces of lemon tart last night, just fucking because. SCRUMPTIOUS

MagicNinja recently turned me onto a little exercise that has made sitting down to write (probably the hardest part of the whole writing thing) more appealing. It's called OBJECT WRITING. It's essentially a creative writing workout/warmup. You take a random noun and write about it for 10-15 minutes, using your senses to describe it. Screenplay writing, especially first draft writing, can get very mechanical... so anything that allows me to flex my ability to create METAPHOR!!!, I will get down with. I think poker players who have trouble putting in hands are facing the same resistance, so those of you who have that issue might want to try some kind of little fun exercise (hand reading game?) right before you play to get you in THE ZONE.

COFFEE GOOD.

books I'm currently reading:

Page Fright

The Art of Game Design

page 47

KRANTZ — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 22:40:27 +0000

Is where I'm at now. I haven't made significant progression here... but in the past few days I have written a lot of pages. We're working on a new Micros episode so I've been hammering out some early drafts, and I've probably written about 20 pages or so of that. Makes me feel strong like bull. My new goal for this script is to finish the draft by Christmas time. So about a month later than planned if I can stick to my daily regimen. Since there are no video games in the way anymore I think I'm golden. The old approach was to just spew out as much crap as possible in a suicide run towards the end of the story. Now I'm trying to be a bit more skillful and focusing on individual scenes, making sure that even if the scenes get cut later they're purposefully building towards something decent. The aim is to try to focus more on the enjoyment of the daily process than the desire to hit the finish line. The whole early draft process is painful as hell but there's gotta be some way to make it go down easier. I suppose I could just start drinking whiskey...

You all seem to have pretty good mentalities about running good/bad. I was expecting more tilted rants and bad beat stories. I guess that's what I get for blogging on a training site! Everyone is relatively well adjusted. Go break some monitors and smash some mice.

Saw Hugo in 3D this weekend, then had some ramen and pretzel flavored ice cream at Momofuku. Pretzel flavored ice cream rules all. Hugo was A+ too, I highly recommend (great family film).

What else. This blog post sucks. Is anyone out there playing Skyward Sword? I will probably blog my thoughts when I am a wee bit more in the mood. When you beat the game it opens up Hero Mode, a harder difficulty level. Maybe I'll play that jazz in early 2012 and give running commentary. If you made it this far, I gift you this epic song to grind to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THdRs7grqhE

update: on p. 50 now. MIDPOINT!

in just 13 DAYS...

KRANTZ — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:02:34 +0000

So much both has and has not happened...

HAPPENED

I beat Skyward Sword--

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

--in about 56 hours, averaging ~7 hours a day.

BOOM!

I tend to indulge in addict-level shit like this with video games I love, and I'd like to think Nintendo would be touched that their latest masterpiece owned my soul despite me trying (failed ldo) to limit play time. Even my girlfriend fell into the venus flytrap -- at first she was all "WTF, I've lost my boyfriend to a video game in which he pretends he's Peter Pan fighting weird pig-looking things with a virtual sword" before succumbing to the motion controlled amazingness that is this latest Zelda game (and spending a decent amount of her own time playing with me). I haven't sorted all my thoughts yet, but I will say it is:

an INCREDIBLY FUN! and revolutionary gaming experience. It not only met my super high expectations, it blew them away. 4 realz.

If you are into games it is worth buying a Wii for, even if this is the only game you ever play on it. The implementation of motion controls into a game properly designed for them (and the game design is genius)... I have never had an entertainment experience that was as fun, immersive, or as epic as this one. It's the kind of thing you need to play to understand. It's not flawless, but most of its flaws are only flaws because of how grand the ambitions are. Cannot wait to see the games that Skyward Sword inspires in the future. OM NOM NOM.

DIDN'T HAPPEN

Write anything.

Well, I wrote some, but once Zelda arrived I forgot about my poor little screenplay and lost my mind to the Wii. I hang my head in sadness and shame that I missed my goal, but a healthy dose of realism always helps me in my quests to GET SHIT DONE. Pining away at what could have been is a useless emotion I discarded long ago. Tomorrow I'm going to set out my new plan (an improved version of the old new plan) and get cracking. I've had some insightful realizations about my process that have me freshly excited to begin the second leg of my journey. (boom)

If Zelda taught me anything, it's that I'm part of a great destiny and unless I wake up from my nap, the world is SCREWED. And how to play the virtual harp.

dude... start writing

KRANTZ — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:02:20 +0000

Today was the day SnappieVouz PM'd me. The content of the message:

dude... start writing.

So I did. I did not like it or want to be doing it but I did. And I'm much happier now that I did than I would have been if I didn't. I'm at page 40 and am very glad I made the decision to blog about doing this. Because it's one thing if I shame myself privately. But another entirely if I shame SnappieVouz too.

Footnotes:

1. I have devised a plan that will surely increase my daily page output. What does Johnny Lodden think the chances are I stick to the plan?

2. BOOM is coming along well but starting to get CRAZY! Deadlines looming in the distance and I'm finding myself awake at 530am to optimize long run expectation. But I like pressure. I'm just not the same Jay without it.

3. Skyward Sword has gotten amazing reviews. I can not put to words my excitement but I will try. I've probably listened to the classic Zelda theme 4x/day for the past two weeks. I watched the GameTrailers retrospective and I've watched/read the IGN review multiple times. I'm having large Russian men come to set up surround sound tomorrow, just for this. The gf and I have been playing Wii Sports Resort to practice. I have been asking my friends if they have a Wii just so I can tell them to get the game and talk about how awesome it is. I am anticipating it will be a TOP 10 LIFE EXPERIENCE.

Check out this Robin Williams commercial.

4. I put out a new DC video today about Training and Practice. I think it's worth watching if you want to work hard to get better at poker, we discuss some useful tactics I found on 2p2.

5.. Everyone who happens to be reading - how are you running at poker? I will address your responses in a future post. Where I will talk more about ZELDA

day ergh

KRANTZ — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 01:37:47 +0000

Technically day 16, and I haven't written anything since my last post. This is troublesome and something I'm about to rectify by writing for the next 2-3 hours. But I have an excuse! It's not a great one (IMO) but it's as good as any: I went to LA to work on BOOM. We're editing this bad boy at a fiendish pace and I can easily say it is the most challenging project I've ever been a part of. Making a movie is hard. There are so many variables colliding with each other on a daily basis, we have over 300 hours of footage, and the story itself is so deep and so detailed that figuring out how to mold it into a <2 hr rollercoaster ride of a documentary is a real brain-shellacker. I am happy with where we're currently at, but a few days ago I would have been on the verge of crying. Luckily for my tear ducts poker turned me into an emotionless cucumber. I don't want to spoil anything so I'm going to be light on the details of the movie, but I have no problem buying into my own hype and saying this will be the ULTIMATE POKER MOVIE OF ALL TIME. Did I say that already in an earlier blog post? No clue. Time is folding in on itself. Hopefully we don't fail spectacularly. If so I will retreat to a remote location and sleep on a bed of cuddly sheep. BAAAA

I beat Uncharted 3 on hard mode the night before I left -- the whole thing took me about 12 hours. It was a top 3-5 video gaming experience (ever) and very satisfying. I'd rather play a game like that than watch 6 movies. I wish I had the energy to write my thoughts on the game design, the final levels and the challenge but I JUST DON'T. Expect some dishing on Zelda though -- I might have the most fond memories for that series out of anything and the anticipation is making my keys glisten with fingersweat. Can't wait to swing that gold wiimote. Can't wait. CAN'T WAITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

eleven

KRANTZ — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 19:29:56 +0000

Long story short, I'm on page 36. Not too happy with my rate of only a little more than 3 pages a day... but considering I have 1/3 of a script done and 11 days ago I wasn't writing at anywhere close to this pace daily, I feel good. I know that more discipline will only improve my speed and the quality of the pages, and that discipline will come...

Today was the first day that I felt like the story was really working on a few levels. I mean, it's really terrible -- first drafts typically are, especially for someone with my experience... but it was the first day that I felt like hey, I can see this actually being really strong after I finish like 5 or 6 rewrites one day way down the line. Encouraging. The characters are finally starting to show their real voices and the dialogue, action and conflict are becoming much more interesting and fun to write. The sequence I'll start on tomorrow is going to be really exciting and should propel me to the midpoint of the story... boom.

Also... Uncharted 3 is as expected, totally cowabunga. I would not do the amazing justice with my words, so I will go with a letter grade: X++. Check out the metacritic reviews if you're interested... or just go rent/buy it. You will find your happiness/wonderment level raised to new heights.

day 8 - act 2

KRANTZ — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:26:25 +0000

pages wrote: 5

total pages: 26

Polished off the first act yesterday. Today we move into Act 2, a whole new world!!! Everything that came before was related to the main character's situation causing a big problem in his life. An opportunity was presented (in the form of his estranged sister returning home after a long time) and now he's decided to take it because it seems way more fun than what he was doing before. Little did he know he'd be dealing with an airplane full of Japanese revolutionaries. Silly goose.

Uncharted 3 gets here at some point today. Only allowing myself to play after the day's writing is complete. If you get it/have it and are playing multiplayer let me know, we can make some things go BOOM

on the 7th day i rested

KRANTZ — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 12:28:58 +0000

We had some people over to watch The Evil Dead, which was super gory and unfortunately not scary at all. Back to the grind today as I near the break into Act 2...
Happy Halloween!

6th day - problem solved, tools

KRANTZ — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 16:53:22 +0000

nawhead commented on my last post with some good advice:

you should just write something very derivative. just copy other better things. and if it's bad, so what? then write it again better. and if it's still bad, so what? then write it again better. this is what the Bronte sisters did.

http://thetalentcode.com/2009/03/30/bronte-sisters/

I'm not too worried about being unoriginal, but I was being too hard on myself too early. I thought I needed the perfect solution to the whole puzzle NOW but that really will not come without time and work and tons of rewriting. So I sat down in Scrivener (nifty outlining program) and thought about what choice I could make now that would open up the most possibilities for later, and I settled on one. From there I was able to outline a bunch of the important beats throughout the rest of the story. This should make things go much more smoothly -- I now know I need to get from point A to B to C to D to E to F to G to H, and what those points are. They may not be the best ideas, but they'll get me to the endgame.

some other tools i'm using to get this done:

Final Draft (for the screenwriting)

Dramatica Pro (story structure)

Evernote (to remember any and every idea)

pages wrote today: 4

total pages: 21!

day 5

KRANTZ — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 22:40:18 +0000

Failed badly at writing 10 pages. Wrote 1! instead. Terrible. Atrocious. Pathetic. At least I'm being honest about it.

pages: 1

total pages: 17

I'm now coming up against the problem of not having made a rock solid structural plan. A very important character has just arrived, and her arrival creates an opportunity for the main character to change his situation. But I'm dealing with decision paralysis: deciding what that opportunity is and what the main character decides to do with it will end up informing the entire meaning of the story. I'm really inclined to spend the time I have tomorrow and Sunday thinking this through more and laying out these two characters' entire arcs...

4

KRANTZ — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:59:28 +0000

Today the resistance was brutal. Really did not want to write. Somehow got through 4 pages, but it was torturous. Have to EMBRACE THE PAIN!@@!

pages today: 4* (may come back later)

total pages: 16 (I miscounted somewhere?)

I'm yet to get on a big roll, so new insane mini-goal is to sprint to the end of the first act (p.25-30) by the end of the day tomorrow... hoping my disgust with today will motivate me BIG TIME

BACTA TANK BONUS

day THREE

KRANTZ — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 19:50:55 +0000

Six pages wrote today Tecmo. Six pages wrote.

That's 13 total. Today I even managed to sneak in a wee bit of rewriting to make everything up to this point read better. BOOM!

A note on "BOOM": I'm a frequent user of this word in everyday life, and I've decided to try to deploy it even more frequently in the days and weeks ahead. It's as versatile as a "Like" button but more emphatic and exciting, and it doubles as free promotion for the upcoming ULTIMATE POKER MOVIE OF ALL TIME. BOOM!

BOOM.

Btw, I finished Attack of the Block and highly recommend. Amazing action adventure alien invasion comedy from the guys who did Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. Very funny, witty satire and a genuinely great movie. Boom.

day deuce

KRANTZ — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 13:23:00 +0000

pages wrote: 5

total pages wrote: 7

So I didn't catch up to quota but I got 5 done. My impulse is to spend today rewriting because half of it isn't very good, but I'll suppress that urge in the spirit of continuing to move. I've got 90 min before muy thai so hoping I can maybe get into another scene and make some magic happen. I still don't have a firm grip on my characters' voices so it's been surprising to see what they end up saying to each other. My psyche is sorting itself out, trying to communicate some kind of big idea through these imaginary people.

things I watched yesterday (worth watching): Marwencol and Attack the Block. I only got through the first 30 min of Attack the Block and had to stop, but it's pretty awesome so far...

day one

KRANTZ — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:39:24 +0000

Yesterday was a mixed bag. A double-edged sword. A coconut smoothie of chaos. I had to switch gears and spend most of the day working on BOOM, where editing is in full swing and a new treatment is being worked on to define the story's structure. So I got consumed by thinking about the order of scenes and when to introduce the characters and other idea-filled conversations with Ryan.

I did, however, get to some screenwriting. I spent too much time searching for the right synonym for ludicrous (went with preposterous, but risible was close) and thus only wrote two pages. So 2/5, three pages behind quota but at least I started. Beginnings are essential to finishing. They can be hard to write because you get caught up in trying to make sure it's a great opening, something that grabs a reader/audience and hooks them just enough on the characters or world to keep their attention. But in my case, I don't even know exactly where I'm trying to end the story yet, so it's much more fruitful to blast through and worry about the specifics of the opening later on. I'll attempt to write 8 pages today to catch up, but if not at least 5, or I will slap my wrist repeatedly with a wooden ruler and post pics.

pages wrote: 2

total pages wrote: 2

random musing: Uncharted 3 reviews are out. IGN gave it a perfect score and called it a masterpiece. Uncharted 2 was one of, if not the most fun console games I've ever played. A totally immersive, cinematic, interactive experience. I remember watching the special features on the disc because I had to know more about how they put it all together. If you have PS3 and haven't played it, and enjoy video games -- IMO it is the pinnacle of modern gaming. Snap buy. Can't wait to play this one. It's awesome to have grown up playing 8-bit Mario and Mega Man and now there are games like this. Hell yeah Santa. Living in the future = the nuts.

movie

KRANTZ — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:16:52 +0000

Tomorrow I start writing a movie. I've decided to reactivate this blog to hold myself accountable to my goal: finish a draft before Thanksgiving. I haven't written one of these bad boys in awhile (thanks poker...), and I'm not sure how much I'll end up sharing publicly about what the story is about, but we'll see how this goes. I've spent a few weeks breaking down the structure (and even longer thinking about the characters), and I'm still not really sure where it's going to lead past page 30, but I feel strongly that any more time spent not writing pages is just procrastination. Since my last post (May!) I've been continuing to work and read scripts and study so many different films, TV shows and video games that I really need to get down to writing to see what I'm capable of. In a way I've been focused far too much on theory with too few hands played. That's not to say I haven't been writing, but I haven't been writing enough pages of screenwriting. Time to change that.

I've found that I'm most productive when I write first thing in the morning, so that's when I'll be doing most of my work. The plan is to pump out 5 pages/day, with very little time spent rewriting. When it's done I'll drop it in a drawer for at least two weeks before I even think about the first rewrite. More tomorrow. If anyone is interested I'm happy to answer any questions about screenwriting, storytelling or the process of writing what will eventually be a ~110 page movie.

My rewards for all this hard work:

nonzero % online poker content

KRANTZ — Wed, 25 May 2011 17:01:05 +0000

In between whatever counts as work these days, I’m putting in work away from the tables into my writing. The three main things I’m doing are reading scripts, this dialogue workshop and learning the Dramatica theory of story. Firstly -- some really good/ambitious coach should put out poker training’s version of this writing workshop. It’s broken into ~15-20 units, each unit made up of 3-4 exercises designed to improve your understanding of that component of the getting better at writing good dialogue paradigm. I think that would be a very successful e-book or video series -- something designed like the Harrington workbook, made up of lots of beginner-intermediate-advanced hands, discussing the strategy for how to play the individual hands (in this book’s case, writing lines of dialogue) and how they relate to the building blocks of the overarching poker theory (constructing scenes and stories).

Secondly, this Dramatica theory is the shit. It explains that every complete story is a model of the mind’s problem solving process, and that in order to write a complete story the author needs to fully explore the four ways a human mind might look at solving the problem. If you’re interested at all you can read more about it here. Story Fanatic does fantastic analysis of popular stories as they relate to Dramatica. I love this guy's blog. Some really interesting posts on movies like Avatar, Inception, Star Wars, Jaws, etc. He illustrates how Pixar stories like Finding Nemo and The Incredibles work, and why they're so meaningful and cherished by audiences.

Anyway, this is neither here nor there. But it's somewhere.

BLOG POST

BOOM documentary: Make your voices heard!

KRANTZ — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 21:25:06 +0000

In case this is the first time you've heard of us: BOOM is an independently produced feature length documentary about the online poker boom being financed by a group of high stakes online poker professionals. Our goal is to tell the incredible true story of online poker, currently facing its biggest challenge to date. We want to give online poker players a voice, and inform the general population about our side of the story.

We wouldn't be in the position to make this movie without the support of the online poker community. We believe, like many others, that poker is the game that best embodies the American spirit: the pursuit of true freedom. That freedom is now under assault. If there was ever a time for the community to unite, the time is now.

Make your voices heard by submitting to us video reactions to Black Friday (#blackfriday). Use BOOM as an outlet to express your feelings: anger, injustice, sadness, fear... whatever you're feeling. We'll edit select video clips into the final feature film (we plan to release in 2012). We have high hopes to reach a wide audience with BOOM. This is our chance to get our story -- the community's side -- out there! Please take advantage. We need your help!

**To submit a video, visit the official BOOM Documentary Facebook Page and click on "Video". From there, choose "Record a Video" (with a webcam) or "Upload a Video" (from your hard drive).**

blahg

KRANTZ — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 20:59:38 +0000

I'd been planning on getting back to blogging, and with the events unfolding in the pokerverse over the past few days now seems like as good a time as any. Unfortunately I don't think I have much to add to the discussion yet that you can't read elsewhere. There are some smart people with good opinions who are actively writing about the pokerpocalypse -- my advice is to stay informed and be ready to make some good adjustments. That's what I'm doing at least, as I'm finding myself having to make adjustments in nearly everything I was working on prior to Friday: DeucesCracked, The Micros, BOOM, my beard (I was about to shave -- now, notsomuch).

What do I think about all this? I think the world is random and cruel and change happens whether or not you want it to come or are prepared for it. I'm sad for all the people who are going to be royally fucked, I'm angry at our government (but not surprised), I'm annoyed that I can't stop thinking about this, and I'm also optimistic about the future of poker. People are always going to play poker, and where there's a multi-billion dollar industry there will be consumers and the US government, eventually. Maybe I'm naive since my interests are so tied up in poker surviving, but it's what I believe and the philosophy I'm moving forward with.

My plans for the return to blogging: for those of you who've been following my journey, you know that I've been working much more seriously on my career outside of just playing poker. So while I'll still write some poker related content, I don't think it will be tied to poker strategy or current events. It'll be moreso tailored to my work at DeucesCracked, creating The Micros and making BOOM. I'm also going to be writing about the work I'm doing to get better at screenwriting, so just a word of warning: there will be lots of thought/analysis on movies, television, new media and the process of writing in general. Who knows where it will lead, but I know that writing and discussing poker helped me get better at poker -- hopefully it can do the same for me here.

I leave you with a picture of Chuck on Black Friday, since everything is better with a picture of Chuck:

P.S. KNICKS!!!

BOOM.

KRANTZ — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:20:23 +0000

x-posting here via dangerlion: BOOM Documentary

Very exciting stuff. Â Thank this puppy for the lack of Never Tell me the Odds :-) Â

All comments appreciated, especially on potential characters. Â We have some great ideas but we want to make sure we're not overlooking any important stories.

Boom.

6m/HUNL group coaching for small or mid stakers

KRANTZ — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:58:41 +0000

KRANTZ group coaching

Check it. Â Email if interested.

improve your grasp of psychology

KRANTZ — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:44:48 +0000

http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/11/why-we-all-stink-as-intuitive.php

Very relevant to playing poker. Â One of the biggest leaks players have is a poor understanding of how their opponent thinks. Â One of the most useful ways to spend your time would be in making yourself a better intuitive psychologist. Â Your opponent doesn't think the same way you do, he doesn't even think about the same things that you do nor does he weight them the same way you do. Â What would be the "right" move against yourself can be the wrong move against another person. Â They take their seat at the table under an entirely different set of circumstances than you do.

A good way to get better at this is to always ask why. Â Why did he open shove the river? Â Because he is a fish is usually not the most useful answer. Â Why did he 4-bet pocket fives? Â There is usually never one obvious answer to these questions at first. Â Instead there are a variety of possibilities that you can weight based on your experiences at the table, with him and other opponents that have made similar moves against you in the past.

Always try to understand why. Â Make it your mantra. Â We should put it on a t-shirt.

Never Tell me the Odds recorded

KRANTZ — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 23:07:31 +0000

Just finished the newest episode w/ Chris. Â Should be out Sunday 8-22. Â I 4-tabled 5/10 and 10/20 vs multiple regs while Chris and I got caught up to speed. Â Y'all will enjoy. Â I missed making videos.

My convo w/ Chris reminded me of something Michael Jordan is known for saying:

I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. Â I've lost almost 300 games. Â Twenty-six times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. Â I've failed over and over and over again in my life. Â And that is why I succeed.

Gotta enter the race before you can lose it.

hand I played today

KRANTZ — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:17:47 +0000

Turns out reading scripts while 2-3 tabling NL6max is a new hobby of mine. Â Here's a hand I won today:

Full Tilt Poker $10/$20 No Limit Hold'em $3 Ante - 6 players - View hand 830553

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

SB: $2190.00
BB: $11115.50
UTG: $4004.00
MP: $2295.00
CO: $2207.00
Hero (BTN): $3111.00

Pre Flop: ($48.00) Hero is BTN with J J
3 folds, Hero raises to $60, 1 fold, BB raises to $220, Hero calls $160

Flop: ($468.00) 5 Q 4(2 players)
BB bets $280, Hero calls $280

Turn: ($1028.00) 8(2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

River: ($1028.00) 2(2 players)
BB bets $720, Hero calls $720

Final Pot: $2468.00
BB shows T T (a pair of Tens)
Hero shows J J (a pair of Jacks)
Hero wins $2465.00
(Rake: $3.00)

BB is noluck17, who plays pretty loose preflop but much tighter from this position. Â Haven't played enough with him lately to know for sure whether calling or 4-betting is better preflop, I'd say calling is likely better with these stacks while 4-betting is better the closer we get to 100bb. Â

Anyhow, on the river he bet pretty quickly. Â For those of you watching Where the Buffalo Roam, here's a quick breakdown. Â My range for him at this point is Qx+ and AK/AJ with 99-JJ and 8x severely, severely discounted. Â Against that range the river might even be a fold (it's really close as he should theoretically have a few more combos of bluffs outside AK/AJ), so the only way I can call is if I give more weight to his quick timing (is he significantly more likely to be bluffing here with a snap bet than he is to be value-betting?). Â I thought the timing gave something away (as an aside, it might have, just not the kind of information I read it for) and made the right call for the wrong reasons. Â In actuality, I was caught by surprise in a spot I shouldn't have been caught - of course he thinks I'm a calling station and unlikely to fold the river. Â In his eyes (correctly or incorrectly, can't give that away) my range is weak so he can v-bet really wide and expect to be a favorite when called.

Key reason I'm even posting this hand - don't be caught by surprise. Â When you're weighting ranges as you're playing, accept and account for the idea that you may be off. Â Constantly questioning your logic is the best way to improve.